Wrestling Poised for Pair of Road MAC Duals

Wrestling at Northern Illinois (4-4, 0-3 MAC) & No. 18 Northern Iowa (5-2, 3-0 MAC)
Date	Friday-Sunday, Jan. 20-22 \| 8 p.m./2 p.m.
Location	DeKalb, Ill./Cedar Falls, Iowa
Game Notes	PDF Notes
Twitter	@EMUWrestling
Results	NIU UNI
Live Stream	NIU ($) UNI ($)

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) - The Eastern Michigan University wrestling team begins a four-match road trip when it heads west for a pair of weekend duals against Northern Illinois, Friday, Jan. 20, at 8 p.m. in DeKalb, followed by a Sunday matinee against No. 18 Northern Iowa, Jan. 22, at 2 p.m. in Cedar Falls.
   The duals can be tracked live on Twitter by following @EMUWrestling. Full results can be found on TrackWrestling.com. Both duals can be streamed through the hosts premium streaming services.

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES: Northern Illinois enters the weekend with a .500 dual record, going 4-4 thus far, including 0-3 in the MAC. NIU has defeated Bloomsburg, Indianapolis, The Citadel, and SIUE, while dropping duals to MAC foes Old Dominion, Ohio, and Northern Iowa, as well as Purdue.

    Individually, the Huskies have two nationally ranked grapplers in No. 12 Steve Bleise at 149 lbs, and No. 9 Shawn Scott at 197 lbs. In the January MAC rankings, Bleise and Scott, as well as Caden McWhirter (157 lbs.) and Trace Engelkes (174 lbs.) were tabbed in third, while Bryce Gorman (184 lbs.) is ranked tied for fourth.

ALL TIME VS NIU: Friday will mark the 34th all-time meeting between the two teams, with NIU holding a commanding 28-4-1 advantage in the series. The first meeting between the two schools occurred in the 1971-72 season. EMU's last victory came back in 2013, a 22-17 triumph.

LAST TIME WE MET: EMU was defeated by NIU on Senior Day, 21-9, Jan. 30, 2016 inside the Convocation Center. EMU won three duals on the day, while NIU took seven of the bouts. As an indicator of how close the dual was, none of the matchups yielded bonus points.

NIU/EMU CONNECTIONS: Despite the relative distance between the two schools, EMU and NIU have a few common bonds between them. First, NIU's Head Coach, Ryan Ludwig, is a native of Chelsea, Mich., which is just 25 miles from Ypsilanti. In addition, nationally ranked Steve Bleise is also a Chelsea native. In all, NIU has three Michigan grapplers on its team. For EMU, three of its wrestlers hail from The Prairie State.

PREVIEWING THE PANTHERS: UNI enters the weekend ranked No. 18 in the NWCA Coaches Poll with a 5-2 record. The Panthers are also a perfect 3-0 in MAC duals, with wins over ODU, NIU, and No. 13 Central Michigan. Their losses have come against No. 6 Virginia Tech and No. 16 Wisconsin.

    There are UNI wrestlers all over the national rankings, including Dylan Peters (10th, 125), Josh Alber (10th, 133), Max Thomsen (8th, 149), Bryce Steiert (10th, 165), Taylor Lujan (11th, 174), and Drew Foster (15th, 184). In addition to all six of them being ranked in the January MAC rankings, UNI's Jake Hodges was ranked tied for third along with EMU's Kyle Springer at 141 lbs.

ALL-TIME VS UNI: Sunday will be just the ninth time EMU and UNI will meet on the mats. EMU is 1-7 after its huge dual win in Ypsilanti last season over the Panthers. The series actually dates all the way back to 1967 when the schools met for the first time.

LAST TIME WE MET: Eastern completed a milestone dual win by defeating Northern Iowa, 22-14, Jan. 6, 2016. The victory marked the first ever program victory over the Panthers for EMU in seven tries. The Eagles won six of the ten matches on the night, including one by major decision and another by fall in the final match of the night to secure the victory. Three other wins came from decisions, while the sixth came on a tiebreaker.

EAGLES IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS: A pair of Eagles are nationally ranked after strong performances this season. Redshirt freshman Noah Gonser is ranked as high as 16th by TheOpenMat and TrackWrestling, as well as 17th by FloWrestling and W.I.N. Magazine, and 18th by InterMat at 125 lbs. Redshirt junior Gage Hutchison is also ranked by the national outlets, including 13th by TrackWrestling, 14th by InterMat, 16th by W.I.N. Magazine, and 19th by FloWreslting and TheOpenMat.

MOVING UP THE RECORD BOOK: Redshirt senior Nick Barber has 77 victories in his EMU career, which ranks 14th on the all-time list with. Barber trails Doug Harper and Nick Wittenburg by one win for 12th all-time. Meanwhile redshirt junior Gage Hutchison has moved his way into the record book this season, as his 71 career wins rank tied for 15th all-time with Scott Jones. Recent EMU Hall of Fame inductee Steve Brown holds the all-time record with 117 wins.

20-WIN CLUB: With dual match wins over Adrian and Missouri, redshirt junior Gage Hutchison got to 20 wins for the second consecutive season after notching 21 all of last season. In EMU's history, only 12 wrestlers have notched more than 30 wins in a season, most recently by Kyle Springer, who had 31 in 2015-15.

EMU ROUTS ADRIAN, 48-6: EMU defeated the Adrian College Bulldogs, 48-6, Friday night, Jan. 13, at Merillat Sport and Fitness Center in Adrian. The Eagles won all six bouts that took place by bonus points, including one pin, four technical falls, and a major decision. The other four weight classes were forfeited, including Adrian yielding 125 lbs., 174 lbs., and 184 lbs., while EMU gave up 149 lbs. to give the Bulldogs their only points.

UP NEXT ON THE MATS: After a week off competition, EMU gets back into action Friday, Feb. 3, with a road dual at the University at Buffalo. The dual with the Bulls is set to start at 7 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Nick Barber

Noah Gonser

Gage Hutchison

Kyle Springer

Eastern Michigan Athletics